Material is ground up or otherwise reduced to a smaller particle size for a variety of reasons. Some typical reasons are; material is reduced in size so that it may be recycled to produce other products, material is reduced in size for ease in transportation and disposal, and material is reduced in size to convert what would otherwise be considered scrap material into usable goods.
Machines have been developed to grind or otherwise reduce the material in size. The machines contemplated herein have an apparatus, such as a grinder, a hammer mill or similar device, to reduce the material to a smaller size. The apparatus to reduce the material to a smaller size is often referred to as a hog. The apparatus is believed to be referred to as a hog since it will consume (i.e. reduce) almost all types of material fed into it. The machine has a hopper into which the material to be reduced or ground up is fed. A plunger movable along the base of the hopper forces the material received in the hopper into the material reducing unit (hog) of the machine where the material is reduced in size and discharged from the machine. The machines are intended to handle a wide variation of materials. The variation not only applies to the type of material but also includes the wide variation in the size of the objects to be reduced. It will be appreciated that an object to be reduced may be composed of more than one type of material, either in its composition or as an assembly. Whatever the configuration, the machines are intended to reduce the objects to smaller sized particles.
The wide variation of the objects fed into the machine, both as to the type of material and material size often will lead to a jamming of the feed mechanism or result in the hog becoming overloaded. Small sized objects that fit readily in the hopper may be presented to the hog at too fast a rate. The plunger which feeds the material into the hog may at times force the material into the hog at a much too rapid rate resulting in a slow down or even stalling of the hog. Further, a large object such as a large log or stump for example, may be of a size so that it may be placed in the hopper, but it may be too large in size to feed through the hog of the machine. The large object will often become jammed between the plunger and the frame surrounding the hog. The large object often must be removed from the machine or at least be repositioned before it and other material may be fed through. In addition to removing the large object from the machine, the large object often has to be reduced in size by other means before it is placed back into the material reduction machine. The production rate of the machine is reduced when it becomes jammed with material.
A machine is required that will not be subject to jamming or stoppage from the feeding of material.